My vote is Rata Sum because Asura master race everything is in close proximity, but I have a feeling that everyone will go to Divinity's Reach for the familiarity. It will be an interesting little psych experiment really imo

If players follow Optimal Foraging Theory, then they will likely congregate at the area where they can optimally access the game's most limiting resources. Think in terms of time, energy, and money.

Based on that they'll likely congregate at a location where the Mystic Forge, Bank, Trading Post Merchants, and crafting stations, and many Asura Gates are in the closest proximity to each other, along with a more relatively centralized location on the map.

Most likely, I was just referring to how the "big drop" concept was that instead of spreading around features here and there they'd wait and put a bunch in at once. That patch could easily include the normal 2-week updates from the Living World teams.

I'd like to see how Vigil Keep feels. Convenient location and everything potentially clustered in a nice little bundle...

My hopes are still high that the Dominion of the Winds becomes the new hub and opens some time, perhaps as a big start to the next season of the Living Story. It would really help fill in an important map-gap.

Dominion of the Winds definitely has the potential to be a new hub given that its placement isn't too far from the map center. Since they've been walled off for x number of years It could be a really interesting line of development to see them opening their gates to the other races and gradually transitioning from the temporary hub at vigil keep.

Ebonhawke is the Mos Eisley of Tyria, full of criminals (Separatists) and dim as hell. It can also be referred to as "The Deep South" of Tyria on account of all those Ascalonian patriots spouting nonsense like, "Ascalon will RISE again!"

Is it bad that, having looked at the lore, I kind of hate humans in general? I mean... attempted genocide against the Charr, attempted genocide against the Centaurs (who originally inhabited Kryta), the Canthan xenocide, Palawa Joko, the fact that Humans aren't even native to Tyria but were brought from across the mists by the Six Gods...
I feel bad for the humans getting curb stomped by the centaurs, but they kind of had it coming.

I think that Guild Wars handles them well though; they seem out of place because they ARE; they're not native to Tyria. It's the first time I've seen humans handled as the "stranger" race and not the vanilla plain race that was originally everywhere, and I really do like it (even if I don't like humans because of it :P)

Guild Wars does humans well, it's not the fact that they're humans that bugs me, it's the fact that so many new players (in nearly every game with the choice) choose humans.

The lore behind them can be (and is) great, but at least half of the people who have a human main do it because "Well, I don't like X race because of Y trait." or "I don't know what these guys are like, but I'm a human, so I'll play them" Just kind of annoys me. Admittedly, I love playing elves, because while not humans, they have a very human-esque feel most of the time. but I also love other races for the pure fact that they'd never been mistaken for a human.

The "Stranger" human idea is also really cool, I honestly don't like when "Humans have spread across the land" because while We, as humans do that, but we avoid some areas like the plague, and not just for political reasons.

Not to mention. I really hate the layout of DR and Ebonhawke, I know my way around Rata Sum well enough for just about anything, Hoelbrak is simple enough, the Black Citadel is confusing, but I like the looks of it, and I "grew up" in the grove. But DA is the one cultural city I refuse to stay for any extended amount of time (the only exception being the Jubilee) La is a lot of fun, but has been starting to get old imo. not that I'm excited to see it go, but I like my scenery to change.

Oh of course. I have to say that I really do wish there was more incentive to playing the other races rather than just humans, like if we had a "learn more" video about each race we could watch during the character creation screen to get more of a feel for them or something. Rata Sum is one of my favorite cities... I just wish it had more. The Asura seem (to me at least) to be a very heavily urban race who build cities with sprawling tunnels and streets and almost labyrinth like structures... that all still make sense. I really wish ANet had kept the main central hub area of Rata Sum, but build more around it like in Divinity's Reach, so you could just go exploring in the alleyways and the backstreets of the city, especially since we know that the city is mostly indoors (it's a giant cube, after all). It just seems to be one of the smallest cities to me.

More often than not, developers create armor and weapons based on humans, because they're the easiest to animate in a lifelike way (since you can watch them irl). Results of this is that if you pick humans, you'll always end up with gear that looks functional, lifelike and with the least clipping errors.

If you take Charr, my favourite race, you'd have to deal with weird animations, clipping of horns and tails, resizing weaponry (yay asura) and other odd traits. Asura have ear and toe clipping, and have to deal with mini size gear. Norns have weird voice acting and sylvari keep telling me that rose has thorns, and where they're currently located. And the glow and plant theme turns a lot of people off.

I never thought about it that way! Though personally I see them much more as a metaphor for European settlers, well... at least the Krytans and the Ascalonians. Digging into the lore it's actually interesting to see that the Ascalonian humans were the cause of the problems in GW1; after they pushed the Charr out of their ancestral homelands in Ascalon, the desperate, dislocated race turned to the Flame Legion for power; they reasoned that the Humans were victorious because of their gods, and so to strike back at them they needed gods of their own. Yes, the Flame Legion wrought horrible atrocities, but it was out of desperation, which I find very poignant and, to be honest, realistic; push anyone far enough and they can turn into a monster. And again with the Centaurs... they were the original inhabitants of Kryta; when the humans showed up there, they attempted not only to push them out of Kryta, but actually wipe them out. Now, the Modniir tribe, the one who suffered the most at the hands of the Krytan humans, has conquered all the other Centaur tribes and is trying to exterminate the humans.

Divinities reach is very beautifully crafted, but that isn't what makes for a hub city. That makes for excellent scenery and lore, and that it. There are three things that will make for the next hub city:

1.) Where do the portals that used to lead to LA lead? Likely Vigil Keep.

2.) Where do you go when you leave the mists? Likely Vigil Keep.

3.) Which area has the most efficient Bank -> Crafting -> TP Layout. If this is also Vigil Keep, that will be the new hub.

As much as we want to make the hub elsewhere, the game pushes you to a hub location by making it more convenient than other areas in the game. The hub is already mostly determined because the above 3 questions are already determined, it's just up to the players to figure out where it will be.

The only thing I saw that pointed to that was an interview with ZAM that said exclusive items would be moved to the keep. It didn't say non-exclusive items wouldn't be moved though (seems a bit convoluted, I know, but what wasn't said is sometimes as important as what is said). Technically, gates to WvW aren't exclusive, does that mean they wont be moved? I'm loathe to believe that's 100% accurate based entirely on paraphrasing. Your point is taken though, if the Vigil Keep is missing key services people might find somewhere else.

I don't disagree (and you'll note that I actually mention they aren't exclusive in my post). Fact remains there were a large fixture in LA in the southern area, with lots of people waiting by them on reset time. They are also where you appear if you walk through the LA portal in the BL.

True, that portal could be made into the portal back to where you were.

Lore wise, they could explain it as all of Scarlet's portal meddling has made the barriers between Tyria and the Mists weaker, and anyone 'strong of heart and spirit' (read: PCs) can now enter the Mists by force of will.

Let's spread the heck out, enjoy this beautiful game and environment. Let's make NO portals to the mists (not needed now, we can all get there from the WvW panel, and get back to where we were). Heck, the mists themselves have most of the services you need there, and it's where I go already.

Put the fractals portal in the mists.

Heck, if they wanted to, they could make a Celestial City in the mists, on its own map. Make it the central hub, and maybe use that as a new way to talk new people into checking out WvW at the same time.

And maybe if we are spread out all over, they will stop charging for Waypoints except when you are dead/defeated. Which would encourage more joining parties to help in other parts of the map.

I'm hoping that there won't be a hub, but rather have things relocated around to the different cities, so that people have a REASON to go to the different cities. It's a bit disheartening that my Charr never really spend any time in the Black Citadel simply because it's harder to get to than Lion's Arch and is less conveniently set up/has fewer services.

Now, IDEALLY I would want the "go to WVW then exit to Lion's Arch" trick work for every racial city instead; IE have a Mists gate to Rata Sum, Black Citadel, Divinity's Reach, Hoelbrak, and the Grove all from the WVW hub areas.

Lion's Arch. Really, as someone with a mystic forge conduit, I can go anywhere, and my time during this patch will be spent between - Somewhere with a bank or crafting station, and fighting in Lion's Arch.

To me it may just be the weird levels in the Grove. If the portals to LA had been closer to the crafting or banks in either BC or DR I would of easily gone there instead of LA. If everything had been right next to each other in the Grove, I still think I never would of gone there. Sylvari is my least favorite class though. Might be somewhat biased because of that.

My favorite is the Grove. I used to use it a lot for bank/tp before as it's close to Orr. Also I love the "music flowers" next to the elevator that takes you to the pale tree. I agree people will probably go to DR.

My favorite city is Rata Sum (for practicality), but they need to add all gates to each city, and access to them from the various mist locations. They could make this game so much simpler by adding gates to each capital city in the sPvP hub.

I'm hoping that people gather anywhere but Rata Sum. I went there because it was quiet and efficient for crafting. If it ends up being Rata Sum, I think I'll move to Black Citadel. I'd rather linger where it's quiet.

rata sum has most stuff together so would probably be the best spot, however i think many people will go to DR. The bank and TP are very close there and also the people with the royal passes will use that.

I rarely go to lion's arch except for events or to cash in those scraps for the fancy skins. My main location is the crafting stations in Wayfarer, everything is together and a Black Lion is just south of it. I bet on most people going to Divinity since the bank and Tp are right next to each other. Rata Sum is too far west to gather at because of the cost of travel.

I'd go to the Hall of Monuments! You know, if it had merchants... a banker... trading post... anything other than ghosts and random animals. I mean come on, couldn't the home instance nodes at least be there!?!

Honestly, since Anet took our main hub away, they should create a new, centralized hub for us. Seeing the rest of the cities are currently almost literally at the corners of tyria, the next best thing is to probably make a new city in the area between caledon forest and LA. cough

I think they're just saying this as to not give too much away. They've already got the next hub all ready to go for when the large expansion-like content releases after the Scarlet arc. My guess: Kamadan.

I think there wil be two places people will congregate. the more experienced players will turn to Rata Sum because it is very well laid out while the newer players and Queensdale Champ Runners will go to Divinity's Reach because that is probably the only racial city they have WPs in.